I previously mentioned that I was in the midst of reading Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer prize winning novel, Lonesome Dove.
Well I have finished.
The day after, I met with former students and colleagues to discuss this epic cowboy story. We spent three hours gaining insights and sharing a lot of laughs.
The next day, I met with hiking friends at the lake. I couldn't shake all the unanswered questions; the sheer shock and joy of the novel made me want to continue discussions.
So almost one by one, I asked my friends if any of them had read Lonesome Dove. Not a soul had. There was no one to discuss Lonesome Dove.
While on this hiking getaway, references to the book kept slipping into our conversations. When I slipped off my paddle board for the second time, I had to admit, that I'd named her the "Hell Bitch." You'd have to know the book to understand. I referenced the book so often, that we renamed the book Lonesome Doug after someone had misspoken the title.
My desire to converse led friends to ask questions:
1. Should I read the book? Well, book choice is a very personal choice of taste. Maybe. And then I would have to warn my friends that the book was often "naughty." But in a mostly laughable way.
2. Why did you like it so much? Characterization was exceptional. A reader comes to know Gus and the captain and Lori and the cook and, well almost everyone.
3. Isn't it a cowboy story? Yes, and that's what kept me from reading it over the years. But don't be afraid of the "western." The book is so much more than its genre.
Our weekend host Jonathan had asked for reading requests. Every night before bed he reads. He'd recently undertaken reading The Odyssey, but was discouraged by the language.
Before leaving on Sunday morning, I whispered to Jonathan's wife, "I'm going to send him a copy of Lonesome Dove."
She laughed.
Almost two weeks later, Jonathan's wife sent a photo of him looking at the book with a caption, "Someone will be busy this week."
I thought he looked too serious--like he was daunted by the 858 pages. He probably was but he had also recently read that it's one of the books people wish they could read again for the first time.
And then, the encounter that made me realize I needed to settle down over the book. We were visiting a man in the hospital (part of our hospital service). He was recently admitted and wanted to tell us his story. He was a self proclaimed cowboy who owned a cattle ranch.
I couldn't help myself and asked, "Have you read Lonesome Dove?"
His eyes twinkled, and he answered yes. But that's not what the man wanted to talk about and he proceeded to tell us why he was in the hospital.
While herding cattle, his horse came to a sudden and abrupt stop. The horse had stepped into a ball of barbed wire fencing. She started to step back from it, but it was behind them too. Unexpectedly the horse reared. The man fell off and the horse fell on him. He was most worried that the grip or the horn on the saddle would hit him in the chest, but it didn't. He managed to move so he missed the full weight of the horse.
His life was spared. I was grateful but couldn't keep my thoughts from roaming back to the wild west of 1870. I wondered why the men in Lonesome Dove, as often as they were thrown from their horses, seemed to be okay.
That's fiction for ya.
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